Our October Runner Spotlight is on Emily Cortright.  She started running in the summer of 2014.  She had just finished grad school and noticed her health had deteriorated a bit, but she didn’t want to pay for a gym membership.  She dug some old sneakers out of her closet, walked out the door, and started running.  She made it 0.6 miles before she had to walk, but she was hooked!  Running has encouraged her to get out and explore, meet incredible people, travel to different places, and see beautiful parks which has pushed her to experience more of life.

She completed 20 events last year but is looking to complete about 40 in 2020.  Since she just moved from Virginia to Colorado, she will be continuing on with our company virtually.   She has enjoyed meeting people from different backgrounds and with different reasons for running.  She will miss the welcoming people and the post-race chats.  Emily enjoys a bag of Cheetos after the race as well as chatting with friends over a beer at one of our Sippin’ Series races.

Her best running experience came from completing the Islandsbanki Reykjavik 10k.  She was in Iceland for her cousin’s wedding, and the race was that weekend.  The race was all around Reykjavik and along the water – “it was an absolutely stunning course.”  She hopes to one day compete in the Two Oceans Marathon (or maybe the half-marathon) in Cape Town, South Africa.

While Covid-19 obviously affected everyone, it did come with a silver-lining for Emily.  She was able to spend time with her fiancé who moved out to Colorado in October.  Once his job went to work-from-home (towards the beginning of March), they were able to spend an extra 4-5 months together.   The worst part of quarantine has been not being able to say good-bye to a lot of people who are important to her which has been tough and sad.  But she wishes everyone the best and looks forward to showing visitors her new Colorado running routes!